


Nothing at all

by paperstalk



Series: Merope's Failure AU [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:21:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23562979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperstalk/pseuds/paperstalk
Summary: In the happy early days of Eileen's marriage, what happens with Toby after a workplace accident.
Relationships: Eileen Prince/Tobias Snape
Series: Merope's Failure AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676740
Kudos: 18





	Nothing at all

**Author's Note:**

> Third part in the series exploring an AU without Voldemort, and with Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald out of the picture long ago. 
> 
> I have a bunch of story ideas in this AU and Severus' characterization depends on this specific canon divergence in his family.
> 
> [](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

For men who usually caroused and whisper-shouted their way home off the night shift, they were surprisingly quiet carrying her Tobias in to lay on the couch, Eileen thought.

She had been waiting for their joviality coming down the lane. These days she was always awake when Toby came off work. He insisted she wait in bed for him so as to snuggle up with and send him off into sweet dreams. Or a kiss and cuddle to take his mind off the new arse of a shift leader. Eileen knew he wanted the comfort and her warmth, but Toby insisted it was to take any undue stress off their little one. His hands would wrap around her from behind and together they would cradle their growing child.

But not this morning. She didn’t hear Toby’s sing song voice throwing out a joke. Nor did she hear Jake across the way’s guffaw as he guessed the punchline. She didn’t hear anything until the front door was forced open and kicked to after many pairs of feet shuffled through. Rumbling male voices. A grunt and a huff and ‘Jesus just get out and call him over!’.

She was frozen on the bed trying to figure out what in gods’ name was going on down there. But Toby’s ‘Jesus’ had her up and throwing on a house coat. From the bedroom window she could make out Jake across the way and two or three other shift workers going their hurried, spooked way home. A moment of indecision and she pocketed her wand from under her pillow.

Down the stairs. Two-ups, two-downs had steep stairs this side of town. But a firm grip on the new railing kept Eileen from tripping the final two stairs as Toby, laid out on the couch, came into view.

His shirt had been ripped open, then tucked back together, and caught in his belt to keep it closed. Some rag blazed with blood on his ribs. And she choked on her own air.

“Jesus Eileen no, please go up to bed. It’s nothing at all. Just a scratch.”

“Toby.”

“Donny is a calling the doc over now. It’s nothing at all. I promise.”

There was a few inches of space near his hip for her to perch on the couch.

“Tobias.”

“Yes. Alright. There was a bit of knock-up with a lorry as we were coming out the loading door. Just a small accident that I took the brunt of. More like a knock-about, eh? I think the other got one of my ribs that’s all. Nothing at all. And doc’ll have me fixed up quick and you and I can snuggle off to sleep unexcited like.”

“Toby?”

"I’ll be alright Eileen. Doc’s on his way.”

She was afraid to see beneath the bloody rag, but her fingers were already easing it back. Relief gusted through her lungs. There was a lot of blood and the gash was wide. But it was very shallow. A large scrape of skin more than a cut.

“See. I told ya. Nothing at all.” His smug smile was more a grimace by the end of his breath. “You don’t have anything for the pain, eh? Not from the bathroom, no stay, I know what’s all in the cabinet.”

Confused, Eileen settled back onto her perch, covering the hand that had reached out to stay her. Their fingers twined together on her bump of stomach.

“Something for the pain. Something, magical.”

Very quick Eileen had the half-forgotten wand out of her pocket and trained on Toby’s chest. Too quickly, if Toby’s startled jostle and subsequent whine were the judge. He always did have a problem with the purposeful, forward brandishing of a wand. Magic was a “Swell surprise, my love”, but the wand was questionably like a finger pointed in one’s face or a knife raised against you.

“A potion for the pain, love. Doc’ll get this stitched back up. Sides, all the lads saw the gash, no use confusing anybody.” Toby’s gentle hand lowered her own wrist and her wand slipped back into her pocket.

“I don’t want to leave you. Potions take too long.”

“Love, I’ll be here just lazing about. If the doc gets here to fix me up before your potion is ready, all the better. No confusion, and I bet magical pain reliever is a touch better than the stuff doc’ll bring.”

Eileen leaned forward to rest their foreheads together and took a deep breath with her husband. “Alright. But don’t move. Please.”

“That’s it love. It’s nothing at all to worry about. Off you get to make my magical muscle relaxer or what have you. Love, I’ll be right here for you when your done.”

Toby watched his wife gather herself. With one last kiss to his forehead and a brush of their fingers together on their growing child, Eileen slipped into the kitchen and set about pulling out her pot of a cauldron from its hiding place in the cupboard.

The thunk of the cauldron. The blaze of blue then orange fire on the walls of their unlit parlor. The tinkle of small ingredient bottles.

If he weren’t in so much chest crushing pain, he could imagine his Eileen was just there rustling up a breakfast for her hardworking man.

He blinked open eyes he didn’t realized had closed. There might be a bit more than a busted rib if the lancing ache at the bottom of his stomach was anything to go by. He pulled his shirt open near the belt and was glad his grimace was silent. That bruise was not there right after the collision. “Soft tissue contusion” the doc would say. He was a bit too familiar with big medicine words. Toby had walloped and been walloped his fair share of times in this neighborhood.

* * *

Nothing at all to worry about. Those were Toby’s words. Her dead husband’s last words to her.

The doc showed up an hour into her brewing. She was finishing a minute long clockwise stir when she heard the front door and the doc call out. He repeated Toby’s name twice more. Reduce to simmer. Wait till potion turns yellow before adding

“Mrs. Snape!”

She had her wand in hand as she rushed for the door. What did it matter the doc was a muggle? That the potion was ruined? Tone of voice can be very explicit.

Toby died while she was making him a pain potion.

One or more of his broken ribs had punctured his lungs. Internal bleeding from some organs in his abdomen. Even if the doc hadn’t been attending a birth and was able to get to Toby sooner, the doc was “not confident anything could have been done in time.”

But Eileen knew there was. Hand still gripping her wand, her brain repeated every healing spell she knew. And she knew more than the average witch. She and Poppy had studied healing together in their final years at school. They’d both dreamed of healing careers, Poppy wanted to be a mediwitch and Eileen…well she wasn’t a Slytherin for nothing. A small part of her had always imagined Head Healer of St. Mungo’s would be especially rewarding and prestigious.

Doc had gone to phone in the death. Eileen perched again next to Toby’s hip.

Why hadn’t she just healed him? Heal first answer questions later. Heal first deal with fear in due time. Heal first.

Heal first.

**Author's Note:**

> I often imagine that it could have been an accidental magical failure that helped create or stoke Tobias Snape's hatred of magic. My headcanon is that Eileen healed him with her wand immediately, but failed to take into account all the injuries, therefore leaving Toby alive but infirm. That also could account for a fear of 'foolish wand waving' and a focus on potions for Eileen and young Severus.


End file.
